Laughable today, in the ancient world astrology exceeded every religion in power and influence. All your astrologer needed was your birth time to draw up a horoscope which predicted your future. He could provide other services. If you gave him your enemy's birth time he could predict the outcome of your future interactions with him. For this reason the birth times of prominent men and women were closely guarded secrets.Enter the self fulfilling prophecy. So ardent was the belief in astrology that believers were seduced into tailoring their actions to match astrological predictions. An unlucky prediction empowered your enemies and dismayed your friends. So it was with Nero. His birth time became widely known and was used to choose the exact moment that he was pronounced emperor and the exact time he was destined to die.It is 48 AD. Epaphroditus, a sixteen-year-old Alexandrian library slave, is shipped to Agrippina, the scheming niece of the emperor Claudius. She is convinced that the young scribe's horoscope predicts that he is destined to help her raise her son, the future emperor Nero, to the throne of the Caesars. Nero, a man of considerable generosity, talent, great ingenuity and boundless energy is committed to making his life a work of art. He dreams of an age in which music, not military force, is power. But "musical war" is an abomination to the apocalyptic Christians who set Rome on fire when "the Antichrist" performs in public. Despite the ominous arrival of Halley's comet, Nero insists on a yearlong concert tour of Greece allowing his enemies back in Rome to sprout like hydra's heads. Nero outrages aristocratic Romans by giving Epaphroditus a hero's triumph for foiling the great conspiracy aimed at dethroning him. Little does Nero realize that his most trusted supporter is fated to help him keep his final date with destiny
